Election of Officers

[Guest Dick Satterly]

When a motion is made and seconded for the Secretary to cast one vote to elect an unopposed Officer candidate to office, is a vote by the members present required?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

Generally, such a motion is not in order.

[Hieu H. Huynh]

If a ballot vote is required in the bylaws, then a ballot vote must be done. If a ballot vote is not required, then the chair simply declares the candidate elected.

[Kim Goldsworthy]

8 hours ago, Guest Dick Satterly said:

. . . the Secretary to cast one vote to elect an unopposed Officer candidate to office . . .

This method is not a method taken from Robert's Rules of Order. It violates a fundamental principle of parliamentary law.

So, technically, your question is moot. You cannot adopt that which violates a fundamental principle of parliamentary law.

[Dan Honemann]

 

 

16 hours ago, Guest Dick Satterly said:

When a motion is made and seconded for the Secretary to cast one vote to elect an unopposed Officer candidate to office, is a vote by the members present required?

 

7 hours ago, Kim Goldsworthy said:

This method is not a method taken from Robert's Rules of Order. It violates a fundamental principle of parliamentary law.

So, technically, your question is moot. You cannot adopt that which violates a fundamental principle of parliamentary law.

This motion that the secretary cast the ballot of the assembly for an unopposed candidate is certainly not in order if a ballot vote is to be taken, but if such a motion is made and adopted, and the secretary complies, and the chair declares the unopposed candidate elected, no fundamental principle of parliamentary law will have been violated. If the bylaws do not require that the vote be taken by ballot in this instance, the candidate thus declared to have been elected will have been validly elected. If the bylaws do require that the vote be taken by ballot, the election will be null and void, but this is not because any fundamental principle of parliamentary law has been violated.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 12/15/2016 at 0:59 PM, Guest Dick Satterly said:

When a motion is made and seconded for the Secretary to cast one vote to elect an unopposed Officer candidate to office, is a vote by the members present required?

The practice you describe is not anything in RONR, and to the best of my knowledge never was.   The chair should rule it out of order.

Whether a vote is required for unopposed candidates is something you will have to consult your bylaws to find out.  If a ballot vote is required in the bylaws, then a ballot vote must be held (with write-in votes allowed) unless the bylaws have an explicit provision for dispensing with a vote in the case of unopposed candidates.

If your bylaws do not require a vote, the chair does not direct the Secretary cast any vote.  The chair simply announces that if there are no further nominations for the office, the sole nominee is elected by acclamation.

[Clurichan]

11 minutes ago, Gary Novosielski said:

The practice you describe is not anything in RONR, and to the best of my knowledge never was.   The chair should rule it out of order.

Whether a vote is required for unopposed candidates is something you will have to consult your bylaws to find out.  If a ballot vote is required in the bylaws, then a ballot vote must be held (with write-in votes allowed) unless the bylaws have an explicit provision for dispensing with a vote in the case of unopposed candidates.

If your bylaws do not require a vote, the chair does not direct the Secretary cast any vote.  The chair simply announces that if there are no further nominations for the office, the sole nominee is elected by acclamation.

Saved by the NR: some evidence it was in Robert's Rules of Order--

Where there is only one candidate for an office, and the constitution requires the vote to be by ballot, it is common to authorize the clerk to cast the vote of the assembly for such and such a person; if any one objects however, it is necessary to ballot in the usual way.

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/9097/pg9097-images.html

Of course, it could be a bootleg or un-authorized version, or for some other reason be "fake news"

A simple explanation of the methods of organizing and conducting the business of societies, conventions, and other deliberative assemblies.

By Major Henry M. Robert,
Corps of Engineers, U.S.A.

Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Company. 1876.